Lawn and garden mowers customarily have rotary blades suspended beneath a mowing deck for use in cutting the lawn. In most single spindle mowers, the spindle is coextensive with the engine shaft. In multiple spindle mowers, there is customarily a belt between the various spindles and the remotely located engine. In all instances, the cutting blade is fixedly connected to the bottom end of the spindle for rotation therewith, customarily by a simple bolt. This is normally sufficient for passage of torque between the engine and the mowing blade. However, as mowing blades begin to perform high power mulching actions and as more and more mowers begin to incorporate blade brakes, there is a need for a method of passing greater amounts of torque and even bidirectional torque between the blade and spindle. Customarily this need has been solved by incorporating an intermediate piece between the bottom end of the spindle and the mowing blade, which intermediate piece includes pilot extensions for inter engagement with the mowing blade at a location remote from the rotary center thereof. This, however, increases the cost and complexity of this interconnection.